Publications by Karen Scrivener

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Decarbonization Potential of Global Fired Clay Brick Production

Fired clay bricks (FCBs) are a dominant building material globally due to their low cost and simplicity of production, especially in low- and middle-income countries. With a projected rising housing demand, commensurate growth in brick demand is anticipate ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2025

CementFF4: Formal atomic charge polarizable force field for cementitious systems – Bulk and surface

Paul Bowen, Karen Scrivener, Manuel Cordova, Ziga Casar

A general-purpose formal charge polarizable force field for cementitious systems, CementFF4, is presented. The force field includes the following species: Ca, Si, O, H, Al, Zn, OH− and H2O. The force field is a significant extension of previous force field ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2025

Suitability of Excavated London Clay from Tunnelling Operations as a Supplementary Cementitious Material and Expanded Clay Aggregate

Karen Scrivener, Franco Alberto Zunino Sommariva

London Clay is a marine geological formation that is relatively abundant in the London Basin area in the United Kingdom. It primarily originates from reworked Jurassic shale, greensand and chalk and lateritic Eocene soils with a mineralogy consisting of ka ...

2025

Quantification of nano-crystalline C-S-H in hydrated tricalcium silicate, Portland cement and fly ash cement using PONKCS method

Karen Scrivener, Xuerun Li

X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize and quantify nano-crystalline C-S-H in hydrated tricalcium silicate (C3S), Portland cement, and siliceous fly ash blended cement using Rietveld analysis with partial or no known crystal structure (PON ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2025

A Novel Uniaxial Penetration Approach to Investigate Sulfate Attack on Cement-Based Materials

Karen Scrivener, Qiao Wang

The sodium sulfate crystallization attack in cementitious materials is addressed in this paper. Portland cement, sulfate-resisting cement, and calcined clay limestone cement were compared by the evolution of expansion, sulfate ingress property, and suscept ...

Springer Science and Business Media B.V.2025

Towards the Design of an Industry-Suitable Technique to Assess Overcalcination of Kaolinitic Clays

Karen Scrivener, Franco Alberto Zunino Sommariva

It is well known that kaolinite dehydroxylate between 600 and 850 °C, and the maximum reactivity is achieved for calcination temperatures of about 800 °C. From an industrial perspective, controlling undercalcination is an easy task, as XRD or TGA could be ...

Springer Science and Business Media B.V.2025

Influence of Calcium Aluminate Cement Addition on the Hydration and Strength of Limestone Calcined Clay Cement

Karen Scrivener

Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) is an alternative cement that allows reduction by up to 40% of the CO2 emissions per ton of cement produced. With this green binder, it is possible to replace 50% or more of Portland cement (PC) while maintaining simila ...

Springer Science and Business Media B.V.2025

Hydration and phase assemblage of limestone calcined clay cements (LC3) with clinker content below 50 %

Karen Scrivener, Franco Alberto Zunino Sommariva

Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) is a promising material for producing cement with low CO2 emissions and properties similar to, or superior to, those of Portland cement (PC), but at 50 % clinker content (LC3-50). In many applications, lower strengths t ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

pyCSH: Automated atomic-level structure generation of bulk C-S-H and investigation of their intrinsic properties

Paul Bowen, Karen Scrivener, Ziga Casar

A new Python code for the automated generation of realistic bulk calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) structures is introduced. The code was used to generate 400 structures with Ca/Si of 1.3, 1.5, 1.7, and 1.9. The generated structures are in excellent agreeme ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Studies on Assemblies. Mass Made Units

Karen Scrivener, Francis Jacquier, Marlène Audrey Bertille Leroux, Anja Fröhlich, Martin Fröhlich, Alia Kenza Bengana, Clemens Waldhart, Hisham Tarek Mohamed Hafez

In light of increased demands for resource-saving, long-lasting, and low-maintenance buildings, the potential of solid construction methods is coming back into focus. This publication takes a closer look at building with solid, serially produced components ...

Triest Verlag2024

Surface properties of clinker phases and clay minerals characterized by inverse gas chromatography (IGC) and their link to reactivity

Paul Bowen, Karen Scrivener, Franco Alberto Zunino Sommariva

This paper presents a preliminary study of the characterization of the surface energy properties of clinker phases (C3S and C3A), kaolin and metakaolin by Inverse Gas Chromatography (IGC). For this, a reliable measurement methodology was developed. By look ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Towards a two-step assessment of the chloride ingress behaviour of new cementitious binders

Karen Scrivener, Fabien Jacques Michel Georget, William Wilson

A wide range of systems were exposed to a seawater-like chloride concentration (0.5 M Cl−) for bulk diffusion experiments over 0.5, 1 and 4 years. Combined with previously published findings on chloride binding and mini-migration testing, the results showe ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Reconciliation of pore structure characterization methods: The simple case of PC-limestone cement pastes

Karen Scrivener, Shiyu Sui, Fabien Jacques Michel Georget, William Wilson

Almost all properties of hydrated cementitious materials depend strongly on their pore structure. Many methods to quantify porosity have been applied to cementitious materials, but there is a huge confusion in the literature about the utility of these meth ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Global decarbonization potential of CO2 mineralization in concrete materials

Karen Scrivener

CO2 mineralization products are often heralded as having outstanding potentials to reduce CO2-eq. emissions. However, these claims are generally undermined by incomplete consideration of the life cycle climate change impacts, material properties, supply an ...

National Academy of Sciences2024

Kinetics of Al uptake in synthetic calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H)

Karen Scrivener

The effect of equilibration time on the composition, structure and solubility of calcium aluminate silicate hydrate (C-A-S-H) was investigated in 0.5 M NaOH solutions at Al/Si = 0.1. Longer equilibration time led to longer silica chains, to less Na and, to ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023

Going Below 50% Clinker Factor in Limestone Calcined Clay Cements (LC3): A Comparison with Pozzolanic Cements from the South American Market

Karen Scrivener, Franco Alberto Zunino Sommariva

Limestone calcined clays are a promising technology as they offer similar performance to OPC from 7 days onwards, while enabling a reduction of the clinker content of 50%. In some regions of the world like South America, pozzolanic cements (i.e., blended c ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2023

Influence of temperature on phase assemblages of belite-ye'elimite cement

Karen Scrivener, Barbara Lothenbach, Natechanok Chitvoranund, Diana Londoño Zuluaga

This paper studies the effect of temperature on the phase assemblages of belite-ye'elimite cement. A comparison is made between thermodynamic modelling and experimental data at 28 and 180 days of hydration at 5, 20, 40, and 60 degrees C. The fast reaction ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023

Durability Challenges of Low-Grade Calcined Clay Opposed to High-Volume Fly Ash in General Purpose Concrete

Karen Scrivener, Matea Flegar

With the decrease in availability of common supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash in Europe, the search for appropriate SCMs should be dealt with locally. A com-bination of abundant low-grade calcined clay and limestone powder has pro ...

AMER SOC TESTING MATERIALS2023

Does carbon footprint reduction impair mechanical properties and service life of concrete?

Karen Scrivener, Diana Londoño Zuluaga

The aim of this study is to evaluate how much the changes in the concrete mix design, which enable carbon footprint reduction, are impacting mechanical properties and predicted service life of concrete structure. The starting point of this study was concre ...

SPRINGER2023

Memorial: Dr. Della M. Roy

Karen Scrivener

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023